Due to the compound nature of medicine, and the exceptional level of caution required to perform medical procedures, there is room for error. When these errors cause injury, further illness, or death to a patient, the victim or victim’s family may be entitled to compensation.
Medical malpractice
Doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, surgeons, specialists, and any other licensed health care practitioner can commit an act of medical malpractice. When such an action occurs, the victim or victim’s family may be entitled to compensation.
A medical malpractice claim may be warranted in cases such as: a medical provider giving a patient the wrong prescription, a failure to properly diagnosis a condition, a medical provider using the wrong procedure or treatment for a disease or condition, a delayed diagnosis and more. Medical malpractice cases are not limited to the above examples. If you suspect that you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice, seek the advice of a trusted attorney to determine what actions you can and should take.
The most prominent type of medical malpractice is a mistake made during surgery.
Surgical mistakes
Other surgical mistakes could lead to infection, paralysis, accidentally cutting a vital organ or leaving a foreign object inside the patient’s body. Surgical errors are only one type of medical malpractice, however. These cases can involve any number of mistakes, such as:
Misdiagnosis
A doctor may poorly determine that a patient has one condition or disease when it is later discovered that the patient had a different condition or illness. If the real disease goes untreated, it can lead to injury or death.
Delayed diagnosis
In this case, the physician fails to determine that the patient has a serious illness such as cancer or heart disease. Naturally, if the person isn’t treated because the doctor failed to recognize the disease, it could lead to injury or death.
Once the victim or the family has worked with the attorney to establish the perimeters of the case and gathered evidence, the attorney may try to reach a settlement out of court. If a reasonable settlement can be achieved, then the case will be settled and the victim compensated. However, if a reasonable settlement cannot reach outside of court, then it may be necessary to try the case. By contacting an attorney, the victim or their family will be guided along the way to determining the grounds for their case and working toward reaching a settlement.